Renting in Hartsville? Here's What You Need to Know Before You Sign

Hartsville Rental Market Overview

Hartsville, Darlington County's largest city, is a thin private rental market split between confirmed affordable housing and a handful of communities with no independent web presence at all. Housing-search directories and each community's own site together identify six multi-unit rental communities inside city limits. Three -- Hartsville Garden Apartments (780 Tailwind Lane), Hartsville Crossing (1310 Driver Avenue), and Magnolia Senior Village (131 Sojourner Way) -- operate their own websites and each confirm income-restricted or age-restricted affordable housing, but none of the three posts a rent figure, referencing South Carolina's income and rent limits instead and directing inquiries to the leasing office. The other three -- Forest Ridge Apartments (1212 Myrtle Street), The Residences on 14th (207 14th Street), and Oakview Townhomes (236 Swift Creek Road) -- appear only on housing-search aggregators with no independently verifiable website, so this guide does not repeat the aggregator-only figures found for them. A separate single-family rental at 1303 E Home Avenue carries the same "Hartsville, SC" mailing address as every community above but sits in unincorporated Darlington County land, not the city itself, per federal geocoding data -- a reminder that a mailing address here doesn't always mean the city government actually covers that parcel.

Common Lease Terms in Hartsville

None of the six identified communities publishes a lease, application, or fee schedule on an independent website, so typical lease length, deposit amount, and application fee can't be stated with a source behind them the way this guide can for a market-rate city.

• Hartsville Crossing's own site describes the community as smoke-free -- one of the few concrete lease terms confirmed from a primary source for this guide
• Magnolia Senior Village requires all members of the household to be age 40 or older, per the community's own site
• Hartsville Garden Apartments, Hartsville Crossing, and Magnolia Senior Village each link to a "South Carolina Income & Rent Limits" document rather than posting income thresholds directly, so confirming current eligibility with the leasing office is the only way to know whether a specific household qualifies

Local Tenant Protections

South Carolina law provides the baseline for tenant rights, but Hartsville may have additional local ordinances that affect your lease.

• South Carolina law preempts local rent control statewide (S.C. Code §27-39-60) -- no South Carolina city or county, including Hartsville, may enact an ordinance regulating the rent charged on privately owned residential property
• The City of Hartsville publishes its full Code of Ordinances online through Municode and lists a Business & Professional Services department that issues business licenses and enforces the property maintenance code, but as of September 2026 no distinct rental-registration requirement, landlord-licensing fee, or rental-inspection program was found among its departments or code sections
• The Housing Authority of Hartsville (1301 South 5th Street), a separate local agency, operates 100 public housing units and administers roughly 210 Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers -- a real local housing resource, though a housing-assistance program rather than a rental-registration ordinance

For full South Carolina statewide tenant rights, see our South Carolina tenant rights guide.

Mandatory Fees at Hartsville Communities

No fee disclosure could be verified for any Hartsville community. Hartsville Garden Apartments, Hartsville Crossing, and Magnolia Senior Village each direct prospective tenants to contact the leasing office for pricing and eligibility rather than publishing a fee schedule; Forest Ridge Apartments, The Residences on 14th, and Oakview Townhomes have no independent website at all, so even that much can't be confirmed for them.

• None of the three CAHEC- or company-managed sites (Hartsville Garden Apartments, Hartsville Crossing, Magnolia Senior Village) lists a specific application fee, pet fee, or deposit amount
• Forest Ridge Apartments, The Residences on 14th, and Oakview Townhomes appear only on housing-search aggregators, with no primary source to confirm any fee those listings may reference

A property with no published fee schedule isn't automatically a red flag in a market this size -- but confirming any application, pet, or administrative charge directly with the leasing office, before applying, is the only way to know the real total at any of these six communities.

Population, Sonoco, and Hartsville's Economic Base

Hartsville's population fell from 7,764 at the 2010 census to 7,446 in 2020, a decline of about 4.1% -- a modest pullback rather than growth. Hartsville is Darlington County's largest city, but it is not the county seat; that distinction belongs to the separately incorporated city of Darlington.

Hartsville is the headquarters of Sonoco Products Company, a Fortune 500 packaging manufacturer founded there in 1899; the company's most recent SEC filing lists its principal executive offices at One North Second Street, Hartsville, SC, and the Darlington County Economic Development Partnership counts more than 1,600 Sonoco employees in the local area, plus a recently announced $100 million facility upgrade expected to add roughly 10 jobs. The city is also home to Coker University, a private liberal-arts college enrolling nearly 1,000 students on a 15-acre downtown campus, and to Stingray Boats, a boat manufacturer that describes itself as operating in Hartsville for more than 35 years from a 225,000-square-foot plant. Duke Energy's H.B. Robinson Nuclear Generating Station, on Lake Robinson near Hartsville, and Nucor's steel mill are both significant Darlington County employers, but Nucor's facility sits inside the city of Darlington itself, not Hartsville -- a distinction worth keeping straight when comparing the two cities' economies.

Common Issues Renters Face in Hartsville

These are the most frequent considerations this guide's research turned up for renters in Hartsville:

• No apartment community in Hartsville publishes independent pricing, so comparing "Hartsville rent" to a neighboring city's published figures isn't possible from public sources alone -- confirming a real number directly with the specific property is the only option
• A Hartsville mailing address doesn't guarantee Hartsville city jurisdiction: a single-family rental listed at 1303 E Home Avenue carries a "Hartsville, SC 29550" address but sits in unincorporated Darlington County land, not the city itself, per federal geocoding data -- which local government and ordinances apply can differ address to address
• Three of the six identified communities (Hartsville Crossing, Magnolia Senior Village, and Hartsville Garden Apartments) reference South Carolina's income and rent limits without publishing the actual thresholds, so confirming current eligibility directly with the leasing office matters before assuming a household qualifies

Negotiating Your Lease in Hartsville

South Carolina is landlord-favorable with minimal statutory protections, and half of Hartsville's identified rental market runs on income-based eligibility rather than a standard market-rate application.

• Confirming the current income limit, program type, and any waitlist status for Hartsville Crossing, Magnolia Senior Village, or Hartsville Garden Apartments directly with the leasing office, given that none publishes the underlying figures, is worth doing before applying
• Verifying whether a specific address actually falls inside Hartsville city limits, rather than relying on the "Hartsville, SC" mailing address alone, matters for knowing which local services and ordinances apply
• Requesting a written fee schedule from Forest Ridge Apartments, The Residences on 14th, or Oakview Townhomes before applying is the only way to know their costs, since none of the three publishes an independent website

A community with no published price and no independent website isn't automatically a red flag in a market this small -- but it does mean every figure needs confirming directly with the leasing office before signing anything.